Some other EU bloggers (see Dominika Pszczółkowska and Tony Barber) are concerned about the rather poor turnout at the Eastern Partnership summit in Prague this week. But is it remotely surprising? And should we care? The Czech Presidency has been a farce – Topolanek who tried to hold it together […]
What’s up with Germany? What do they have to hide? I attended a press conference organised by farmsubsidy.org yesterday entitled “Who wants to be a farm subsidy millionaire?” where Jack Thurston, Brigitte Alfter and others presented the latest data on CAP payments using the latest statistics on agriculture spending due […]
The European Parliament has just put out this video on Youtube saying that’s it’s never too late to vote. Well, who should you actually vote for? Not UKIP as far as I’m concerned… So I produced a little remix:
München is in the middle of the election fever campaign for 7th June European elections and this has prompted a whole load of parties to come up with their election posters. Foremost among them is the CSU, in danger of not polling 5% of the votes nationally in Germany and […]
Peter Hain has had a good old rant at the BNP in Comment is Free and this is followed up with a Guardian story on how the BNP could get £2 million of EU funding. But these pieces are not all that they seem. First of all, what motivates people […]
If the number of web based initiatives was anything to go by then June’s European Elections are gearing up to be rather interesting. What impact all of these initiatives will have on turnout, interest in the elections etc. remains to be seen. But for now here’s a summary of the […]
The PES was kind enough to e-mail me a copy of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen’s open letter to the European Liberals (whose campaign launched today) where Rasmussen calls into question the Liberals’ statement that “The single market should be reinforced and extended in energy, postal services, railways and health care”. The […]
The 2004-2009 Barroso Commission is starting to wind down. Brussels has its eye on the European Elections in June, and the selection of a new Commission due to take office from 1st November. One of the Commissioners for whom I have developed quite some respect since 2004 is Margot Wallström; […]
Jean Quatremer has today penned a rather depressing post (in French) about how abstention from voting is likely to reach a new high in the European Parliament elections 4-7 June this year. How, he bemoans, can this be the case for the EP alors même que ses pouvoirs n’ont cessé […]
I lived in Berlin for 6 months in late 2001 / early 2002; since then I feel I have been playing catch up, trying to understand a city that I was too young to fully appreciate when I lived there. Perhaps I should rephrase: I reasons I enjoyed my time […]
The seating order at the pre-summit dinner is vital (Indonesia and South Korea should be especially happy apparently), the UK is gripped by Michelle Obama’s dresses and the fact she towers over the queen and Barack gave the queen an iPod. In the meantime all the sherpas are beavering away […]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LHqpzjMTD Oh, you can just imagine them chortling away in the TaxPayers’ Alliance producing the above video about the Common Agricultural Policy. It contains a heady mix of fact and prejudice and there’s even a report to go with it. The ‘stats’ in the TaxPayers’ Alliance report are correct in […]
